Thursday, February 15, 2007

The New Office

My company moved to a new office this week. It's only 3-4 block from our old place, but that means it's 3-4 blocks closer to the El. That 1/2 a block walk from the train has really been nice in this crappy weather. So far the place is great. My only complaint is that there's quite a bit of distance between me and the rest of the Marketing team. Since I work for both Sales and Marketing, they have me near the Sales side, even though most of that team is never around. So I'm against the wall, under a vent which creates nice white background noice that drowns out everyone around me and basically I feel like I'm on my own over here. The good part of that (besides not having to hear two girls I used to sit near call each other "pookie" and "punkin" while making their thinly-veiled racist comments, complaining that their boyfriends haven't proposed yet and obnoxiously only do what the other does, as if this were high school) is the privacy and having a wall behind me, making it easier to post blogs like this. The bad part is that it's only adding to the feelings of being lost in the department, which equals not being given more responsibilities, which means not being promotable. I really don't care about climbing the corporate ladder, but I don't want to stay in this salary range forever or in this boredom range forever. In this company, if you don't move up, you don't get paid much more.

So, needless to say, I've talked to some people around here and hopefully some changes will come soon. In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes and ears out for other opportunities. Apparently my position pays quite a bit more in other companies. It may not be worth leaving until the summer when I'm fully vested in their matching 401K, but that's part of what I'll weigh when the time comes.

In the mean time, not be given more responsibilities means I can spend at least a portion of my day surfing for auditions and styling opportunities. I'd like to use some of my down time to write, but I have total writer's block. I don't even know where to start. Corey and I have talked about writing a show together, but it's hard to stay motivated without a deadline or even specific idea. It's also hard to stay motivated in the house. We never convince ourselves to just stop and write or improvise when it's the two of us at home and the dishes need to be done or the bills need to be paid. There are too many distractions, we definately need a neutral place to work.

We're considering going through the Second City Writing Program. It'd be a significant cost, but could be worth it. Then again, it could be "the man" just trying to bleed us dry with promises, but nothing more than writing assignments? Is it worth the money? We've talked to a couple people, some who really enjoyed it, others who think it's a waste of time and an excuse not to motivate yourself when the creativity and talent is already there. Hmm, I don't know. Feel free to chime in if you have any experience in this area.